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    Categories: Law Life

Santa Hustle 5K Race Recap

Happy Monday! If you were enjoying your weekend away from you’re computer, here’s what you missed from me!

December Goals and Cranberry Sauce Oatmeal!

My (school) life fell apart, but there’s always a silver lining!

I am LOVING all of these holiday-themed races! The Turkey Trot during Thanksgiving, and now the Santa Hustle for Christmas! Themed-races are just so much more fun, especially when they send you ridiculous things to wear:

I really think this beard becomes me, I have just the right cheeks for it.

The race was at 9am, and only 3 miles north of my apartment. My cousin, Allie, and I decided to meet up between our apartments and jog up to the race to warm up. I woke up early though and had time for a small breakfast. A piece of Udi’s bread with Peanut Butter, Cranberry Apple Butter from Trader Joes, and half a sliced banana. So good!

Here’s the whole outfit that came in the race packet. Pretty nifty, huh?

Since it was already raining out, I decided not to wear the hat (I didn’t want it to get ruined, I’ve never had a Santa hat!). I also decided against the beard because I could barely breath just standing there. That was not going to work for the 5K.

Here is Allie and I at the start line! She wore the hat, but no shirt. We figured we just completed each other’s outfits.

We had to stand at that start line FOREVER. Okay, so it felt like forever because it was cold, raining, and they started 5 minutes late. But once they started, we were off! oh wait… Not.

There were so many people participating that we were barely moving, even past the start line! I realized very quickly there was no way I could PR this race. The course was actually packed the entire way! Despite having to run slow, I had a good time running it with Allie, and the crowds were hilarious. When we were at the 3 mile mark, a man yelled “Hurry!  You’re almost to the North Pole!” Okay, I thought it was funny.

They also handed out candy and cookies along the 5 K (along with water stations). I snagged some M&Ms (so addicting – saved them for after though) and then yelled at the cookie people that they should have gluten free cookies to! (In a nice way… I promise).

When we finished we walked around a bit, and then headed out. As we were leaving, we saw this:

REINDEER!!!! How cool is that!?!? 

We then walked towards the city, out of the park, and spent a solid 20 minutes trying to find a cab. Any cab. It was ridiculous. I’m pretty sure my hands completely froze off. We finally saw one, snagged it, and headed home to shower and change. We had a brunch to attend!

Allie’s parents were in town to go to the Chiefs vs. Bears game this Sunday (GO CHIEFS!!!!!) and asked if we, my brother, and my sister-in-law would want to meet them for brunch after our race. Of course! We headed to Two Sparrows since it’s near all of us. I went there for my birthday brunch with my brother and was excited to go back and try out their lunch menu!

I got the salmon salad. The waitress was so sweet and made sure there were no croutons and that the dressing didn’t include any soy.

It was delicious! It was a grilled salmon (a little too much salt on top for my taste, but good!) over a field greens with kalamata olives and avocado. Some serious healthy fats on this salad!

It was great to see my aunt and uncle again, and fun to eat out! I don’t do that much… especially during finals.

Have you ever run in a holiday-themed race?

Do you prefer order breakfast or lunch at brunch?

Kathryn Wheeler: My name is Katie and I moved to Chicago in 2010 for law school and graduated in May 2013. I'm originally from Kansas City, MO and I did my undergrad at the College of Charleston in South Carolina. I started this blog in August of 2011 because I needed a creative outlet and I wanted to write about my life in a way that other women could relate to and realize that they aren’t alone in many aspects of their lives.